Solar ovens/cooking for the long term - What's your experience and favorites?

[TucsonMax]

There's only a few posts on solar ovens & solar cooking, (mostly for camping) so I thought I'd start a new thread - one about longer term use. Let's say the power is out for 30 days, fuel is way low and firewood is not an option (few trees in my desert.) What's your experience cooking w/ solar, what are your favorite methods and products, what books do you like and other resources, etc?

[crashdive123]

Here's one from my dad who served in the Pershan Gulf Command during WWII. Fried eggs and bacon cooked on the hood of a jeep.

[Rick]

Similar one from dad that trained in tanks in the Mojave. Yes, you can fry an egg on them.

Sorry, TM, I've never used a solar oven. I actually have two really nice cardboard boxes in the garage I was going to line with aluminum foil and test but I messed around and let the temps drop outside.

[crashdive123]

Which exposes one of the problems with solar ovens for those that live in cooler climates.

[LudwigVan]

I will fess up that I've never used a solar cooker but it seems like a good option to have.

The downside is that it generally takes a very long time to cook in one, as in put the pot on when the sun comes up and take it off at 5 or so. and theres the issue of it being in full sun and, you know, not-cold weather. That said I've taked to people in hot places (my place is mostly hot) who claim to have really good results with solar ovens.

Hey, look what I found: http://www.solarcooking.org/

[your_comforting_company]

being a roofer, I wrap my canned food in felt paper underlayment and lay it on the dash. by dinnertime it's usually too hot to eat.

Reader's Digest "Back to Basics" has a really neat blueprint of a solar cooker. it's like half a barrel with a plexiglass lid, rotatable to maintain sun direction. I myself have not built nor used one yet so I can't claim to the effectiveness of it, but it's warm here most of the year and it looks good on paper.

I have too many projects lol.

[Rick]

As I said, I've never used one but here's a pic of one I want to build.

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q348/safe_zone/solaroven.jpg

[TomChemEngineer]

I just saw an interesting article someplace about a regular umbrella lined with shiny aluminum foil with a pot hanging at the focal point. I'm thinking of something like sticking the umbrella under a regular billy stick/hanging pot on a cross piece like we put over a regular fire, sans the fire of course, and see how long it takes to warm things up. I haven't tried it, but I sure want to try it... if it ever stops raining in the southeast!